Giant Wash and the Lamplighter Lounge in St. Paul at the intersection of Larpenteur Avenue and Rice Street, where three cities come together: St. Paul, Roseville and Maplewood, July 13, 2017. (Scott Takushi / Pioneer Press)

Because of a lack of interest from other government entities, the Roseville Police Department’s push for a new substation at the city’s border with St. Paul has ground to a halt.

“As it stands, it’s dead,” said Roseville Police Chief Rick Mathwig. “It’s disappointing the project didn’t come to fruition, but that’s not to say it couldn’t (in the future.) … We hope to resurrect this project.”

The plan was to put the substation at the busy corner of Rice Street and Larpenteur Avenue — a “gateway” that abuts the three cities of Roseville, Maplewood and St. Paul.

Community input over how to revamp the corner into something a bit more cohesive revealed a near-unanimous concern: safety. The substation was advanced as one way to address that, particularly in the wake of an effort by Roseville officials to invest more in the city’s southeast, which includes its poorest census tract.

Still, police officials in Maplewood noted that calls at the corner — everything from assaults to auto thefts — dropped significantly after the closing of the Stargate nightclub in February.

Mathwig approached other departments to help chip in for the rent for the potential substation, anticipated to take up a 2,000-square-foot space in a privately owned strip mall being built on the corner. In the meantime, the city’s nonprofit Police Foundation put up roughly $4,000 to hire an architect to do design and cost estimates.

They concluded the space would cost roughly $300,000 to build — $200,000 for the police portion, and another $100,000 for a 1,500-foot community room, which they hoped public or nonprofit community organizations would use to conduct meetings and provide social services.

The building owner offered a five-year lease for $26,000 a year.

But Maplewood police declined to participate, and St. Paul offered a handshake deal for an annual $2,500 commitment, according to Mathwig. But since that handshake, St. Paul’s portion of the price jumped to $10,000, and that city balked.

The bigger issue, Mathwig said, was not getting any commitment from other government agencies to use the space as a service base — not just for public safety but also for other needs.

“The money to build it is one thing, but not being able to commit services, that ended up being the final blow,” Mathwig said.

Ramsey County officials said Roseville contacted their manager in charge of veterans services, public health, social and financial assistance services, and community corrections to see if they had any facility needs.

The county replied that at the moment they don’t, having sufficient nearby satellite offices.

But county spokesman John Siqveland said that while there weren’t any needs now, the county would be open to having “future conversations about the potential for community corrections needs.”

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